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FEATURE ARTICLE 2

VolunTourism: Maintaining Its Integrity - Q&A With Lawrence Woo

by David Clemmons

Below are both my letter with the questions, asked of Lawrence Woo & his team at Volunteer Visions, and his responses.

(Editor's Note: "questions" and "responses" are unedited.)

Dear Lawrence Woo & Team,

My name is David Clemmons. I am the Founder of VolunTourism.org. I publish and edit a quarterly newsletter entitled "The VolunTourist." VolunTourism.org is a program of Los Ninos, Inc., a 501 (c)3 nonprofit organization. (Please visit www.losninosintl.org)

I wanted to alert you that I have received a complaint regarding your organization. I am not posting the complaint at this time. I want to give you an opportunity to respond fully to the complaint.

What I will be doing is publishing my approach to conducting an initial background check on your organization. Here is what I have done so far, along with my questions to which you may respond. Your responses, if any, will be included in the article which will be published later this week.

QUESTION #1

1) Volunteer Visions uses a .org suffix yet is not registered with the United States Internal Revenue Service Publication 78 as a 501 (c)3 nonprofit organization.

Here are my questions for you related to Point #1:

a) If the IRS has overlooked your registration, could you please supply a letter that demonstrates your 501 (c)3 nonprofit status?

b) If you are not registered in the U.S. as a nonprofit, are you a nonprofit in Costa Rica?

c) If you are neither a nonprofit in the U.S., nor Costa Rica, i.e., you are a for-profit company, why are you utilizing a .org suffix? (Although it is allowable for any entity to use a .org suffix, according to the IANA.org web site, the web site also states that "It (a .org domain suffix) is intended to serve the noncommercial community")

d) Do you have an EIN number in the United States? Or are you a Costa Rican Company?

Photo Courtesy Of Hands Up Holidays, All Rights Reserved

RESPONSE #1

Dear David,

Thank you for contacting us and giving us a chance to clarify matters. Your questions have been answered below:

1) We are NOT a 501c3 company. We are Costa Rican Sociedad Anonima. We are entitled to use the .org suffix and we do regularly donate to local schools and NGOs and work in collaboration with community leaders to initiate programs that benefit the community. We have recently began providing free night English classes to the community in Samara, installed recycling bins in Samara working in conjunction with the local municipality, donated soccer jerseys to the local primary school and we also donated materials so that a neighboring town could renovate a delapidated bridge that served as the only access point to the town. We are working on a blog that will highlight some of the activities that we have taken part in over the past few months and I would be more than happy to send you a link to the blog once it has gone live on our website.

QUESTION #2

2) According to your "Who Is" Registry on PIR.org, your Admin Street is: Contiguo al Hotel Las Brisas Del Pacifico, Casa Amarilla; your Admin City: Playa Samara; your Admin State: New York; your Admin zip: 10011; your admin country: US; your admin phone: 506.656.0373

Here are my comments & questions related to Point #2:

a) I was unable to find Playa Samara, New York, 10011 when doing an online search, can you tell me where Playa Samara, New York is?

b) If there is no Playa Samara, New York 10011, why would you register a domain name with Admin information that is not accurate?

c) I noted that the URL account was established in February 2007, did you start your organization then? If not, when?

RESPONSE #2

2) Our full mailing address is as stated on our website:

Contiguo al Hotel las Brisas del Pacifico

Casa Amarilla

Playa Samara, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

506-656-0373 ( Costa Rica)

Photo Courtesy Of Hands Up Holidays, All Rights Reserved

QUESTION #3

3) As it relates to the telephone number that you post on your web site as your phone: 330-871-4511,

a) When I do a "reverse" phone lookup on 411.com, this number comes up as a land line in Ohio. Why would you use Mountain Time for your office hours with a land line posted in an eastern-time zone?

b) Does this phone number forward to offices in Costa Rica? This is a common practice with entities that have operations outside of the U.S.

RESPONSE #3

3) The 330 number gets forwarded to our office in Costa Rica and since our office is located in Costa Rica, we use mountain time office hours.

I hope that I have been able to answer your question in depth. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Warm Regards,

--
Lawrence Woo
Volunteer Visions - Director

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